Local Charity Takes Action To Tackle Sexual Abuse
Over the past few years the media has been full of stories of child abuse. It is easy to feel overwhelmed and paralysed, and distracted from the fact that the victims of these high-profile scandals are real people, left struggling to cope alone with the impact of abuse. Mankind, a local charity that provides counselling to male survivors of sexual abuse, stands for these survivors and believes that although society’s paralysis is understandable, the solutions may be easier than we think. The media coverage of Operation Yewtree has encouraged previously silent survivors to speak out about their abuse. Martyn Sullivan, CEO of Mankind, says; “We’ve seen a huge rise in people coming forward – an increase of 40% since the Jimmy Savile news broke. This shows that abuse is more common than we thought. Government statistics suggest 1 in 9 men will have been affected by sexual abuse or assault at some time in their life – that’s 18,000 men in Brighton and Hove alone.”
In exploring what could be done to encourage male survivors to access help earlier, Mankind realised that, although their clients reported trying to come forward sooner, many told of the rejection or disbelief they had experienced when disclosing to their friends or family. From this it was clear that the block on young male survivors getting early help is not just a matter of them not knowing how to come forward – it is also a question of our society not always being ready to hear them and know how to respond.
Mankind recognises that, as individuals, we might not know how to handle discussing abuse with survivors wanting to reveal their experience. For that reason, they have set up the Community Squared (C2) project to develop community initiatives that can develop the resources we feel we need to help us all talk out about sexual abuse more openly. To start up the debate, Mankind will be holding a public meeting from 5.30 – 7.30pm on 25 March at the Friends’ Meeting House in Ship Street, Brighton. Mankind have also launched an online survey to get a snapshot of public attitudes and understanding. To participate in the survey simply visit http://3equalsmk2.wordpress.com
If you have been personally affected by anything in this article there is help at the following resources:
Male support: www.mankindcounselling.org.uk
Female support: www.survivorsnetwork.org.uk
If you are worried about the current safety of a child please contact the NSPCC: www.nspcc.org.uk
